


Mirror Mirror

by brinnanza



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Magic Mirrors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-18
Updated: 2014-02-18
Packaged: 2018-01-12 21:47:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1201789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brinnanza/pseuds/brinnanza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It says—hang on, that can't be right.” He tapped a few keys on the tablet while Sheppard peered over his shoulder. “It says it's a 'portal to the soul'. It shows you your heart's desire—or maybe 'one true love'. The translation's not clear, and anyway, linguistics is a pseudoscience at best.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mirror Mirror

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Português brasileiro available: [Espelho Espelho](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6249568) by [Rosetta (Melime)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Rosetta)
  * Inspired by [Magic Mirror](https://archiveofourown.org/works/976632) by [Tarlan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan). 



> Inspired by Tarlan's fic [Magic Mirror](http://archiveofourown.org/works/976632). I read the summary and this fic popped into my head, fully formed like Athena from Zeus. (I swear that was ALL I read when I wrote this, so further similarities beyond the premise are mere coincidence.)
> 
> Oh, and tormack was created by Cephalopod originally, I believe.

They found it in a lab in a tower on an East pier. The lab was fairly empty—some chairs, a long lab table, a data console, and what looked like an ornately framed mirror. It was matte silver (naquadah, McKay suspected) with figures carved into it. The mirror's surface was smooth and clear without a blemish. McKay wouldn't have given it a second thought (how many empty labs had they come upon in the course of their exploration of Atlantis?), but there was something about the mirror, some kind of hard-to-define depth to the glass. It sounded like voodoo in his own head, but he headed over to the console regardless.

“You see something I don't see?” Sheppard asked, his hand on his sidearm almost casually.

“I dunno,” replied McKay absently, pulling out a tablet and hooking it up to the Ancient computer. 

“Just looks like an empty lab to me.” Sheppard walked a lazy circle around the room. He stopped in front of the mirror. “Cool mirror though.”

“Knowing the Ancients, it'll pull you in by your absurdly long hair and deposit more data than your flyboy brain can handle.”

“Maybe that'll include plans for some big-ass Wraith-killing guns.”

“Yeah, that sounds like the Ancients we know and love,” retorted McKay dryly. “Hmm.” He scrolled though the data on his tablet. “Ah, yes, here we go. It actually does do something. Sorry Colonel, you'll have to use the mirror you've got to do your hair.”

“It does this naturally,” Sheppard said defensively, running a hand through his hair.

McKay ignored him. “It says—hang on, that can't be right.” He tapped a few keys on the tablet while Sheppard peered over his shoulder. “It says it's a 'portal to the soul'. It shows you your heart's desire—or maybe 'one true love'. The translation's not clear, and anyway, linguistics is a pseudoscience at best.”

“'Heart's Desire'?” Sheppard repeated. “Like the Mirror of Erised.”

“It's nothing like that,” scoffed McKay. “It analyzes brain waves or something. No magic.”

“Any sufficiently advanced technology,” Sheppard began.

McKay cut him off. “Yeah yeah yeah.”

“You gonna try it?” Sheppard prodded after a moment.

“No way! What if it tries to ascend me?”

“It's not going to ascend you,” Sheppard soothed, even though it was entirely possible that it would do just that.

“You don't know that,” said McKay, but he stepped in front of the mirror anyway, peering into it. He tapped at the tablet screen, then looked back up. “I think you just touch the frame and ask it.”

“Have at it then,” said Sheppard with a little waving gesture. Rodney scowled. Knowing the Ancients, it was either booby-trapped or else it was _designed_ to do something painful and/or terrifying (seriously, who builds a machine that gives people _exploding tumors_ ), and here Sheppard was with no regard for his safety whatsoever.

“I don't see you rushing to volunteer,” McKay grumbled. He rolled his eyes and, feeling every inch the fool, touched the frame and said, “Okay, show me my one true love.”

Nothing happened.

He tapped the glass. “Hello? You're supposed to be showing me my one true love here.” But it was just his own reflection.

Sheppard snorted. “I think it is, Rodney.”

McKay swiveled to smack him on the arm. “Very funny, Colonel.” He tapped at it again.

“Try asking for second best.” McKay could see Sheppard waggle his eyebrows in the reflection behind him, and McKay was tempted to hit him again, this time right in the smirk. 

“It doesn't work,” McKay insisted. “Or maybe it takes a stronger gene. You try—even though we both know it'll just show alien bimbos and a puddle jumper.”

“I've already got a jumper,” said Sheppard, skating right past the “alien bimbos” remark. “It's not your heart's desire if you've already got it.”

“It might be 'one true love,' in which case I'd be spot on. Try it.” He shuffled out of the way, and Sheppard moved into place.

He cleared his throat, placed both hands on either side of the frame, and said grandly, “Mirror Mirror on the wall, what's my greatest love of all?” He tossed a smirk at McKay, who rolled his eyes again.

All McKay could see in the glass was Sheppard, all elf ears and decidedly non-regulation hair. But Sheppard's expression changed for a fraction of a second, so quickly that McKay would have missed it if he hadn't already been staring at Sheppard's reflection expectantly. Sheppard quickly schooled his face into his usual smirk, and McKay couldn't be sure he'd actually seen anything.

“Did you see something?” McKay accused, his mind off and running with theories. Maybe it messed with the visual cortex directly, like a hallucination, in which case only the asker would see the result.

“Nothing,” Sheppard answered, but his voice sounded a little funny. “Must be broken, like you said.”

“Huh,” said McKay, wandering back over to the console. “Maybe I can fix it.” His hands started making anticipatory grabby motions.

“Eh, why bother?” Sheppard asked, steering McKay bodily towards the door, pulling the wires out of the console on the way. “It doesn't even explode. Besides, it's lunch time, and I'm pretty sure we've got some more of that purple potato you like.”

“Ooh, tormack,” said McKay, his whole face lighting up. Food was always a good distraction.“I hope it's roasted today—oh, with some of that peppery spice we got on MX4-138....” He continued babbling as Sheppard followed him out of the room, the doors whooshing shut behind them.

To Sheppard's immense relief, McKay seemed to forget about the mirror or portal or whatever it was. For a couple of days at least. He brought it up out of the blue over lunch one day about a week later.

“Wanna see if I can fix that desire mirror?” he asked between bites of turkey (well, turkey-like) sandwich.

“Don't you have water tanks to desalinize?” Sheppard deflected. He could think of approximately nine thousand things he'd rather do than spend more time contemplating his “heart's desire” or whatever. Getting the crap beat out of him by Teyla was high on the list, as was standing in the blowback of the Stargate as it engaged. Watching Rodney fawn over whatever hot blonde showed up in the mirror was not even on the list. God forbid it turned out to be Keller. Sheppard wasn't sure he had the stamina to listen to Rodney lament every decision he'd made since returning to Pegasus if he was still pining for her. He'd had enough of that when they broke up and McKay had been explicitly still pining for her.

Plus there was that ridiculous fluttery feeling he'd gotten in the pit of his stomach when Rodney had asked the mirror before. He was a grown-ass man, for Christ's sake. Grown-ass men did not get “fluttery feelings”.

But Sheppard just said, “Besides, there's plenty of labs we haven't explored yet. Why don't we go through the next floor in the tower?”

McKay shrugged. “Carson said the mirror would be helpful to the new shrink.”

“Since when do you care about what's helpful to doctors of any kind?” He was mostly baiting, since he already knew the answer was “Since the new shrink turned out to be a hot blonde.”

“Hey, I'm all about making new people feel welcome on Atlantis.” Sheppard snorted, and McKay amended, “Okay, I'm all about making hot women who haven't been here long enough to hate me feel welcome.”

Sheppard finished his lunch, pushed his pudding cup toward McKay, and stood up to bus his tray. “Gotta go. Marines to train, paperwork to avoid,” he quipped.

“Okay,” said McKay around a mouthful of pudding. He swallowed. “I'm gonna work on the mirror tonight. If you wanna help, I'll be there around 2100.”

“Sure,” said Sheppard noncommittally, knowing that even if he told himself he would be nowhere near that lab at that time, he'd end up there eventually, making sure McKay ate and slept.

For now though, he really did have marines to train, so he cleared his tray and left the mess hall.

 

Around 2230, the radio clicked in Sheppard's ear. It was McKay. “I think I got it working. Come test it for me.”

“Sure buddy,” Sheppard said, putting more cheerfulness in his voice than he actually felt. But he made his way to the lab. He found McKay elbow-deep in the console, wires and crystals scattered around him.

“Here, hold that,” McKay instructed, gesturing to a flashlight on the floor with his chin. Sheppard picked it up. “Great, point it right here.” McKay wiggled his elbow to indicate, and Sheppard obliged.

“I thought you fixed it.”

“I did. I think. But it's still not working for me, so I'm trying to boost the sensitivity so it'll respond to weaker genes. Not all of us have the city as a personal lap dog.” McKay touched two wires together. They sparked, and McKay shoved the zapped finger in his mouth. He touched the data pad resting on the console above his head with the elbow that he'd removed from the console. “Ah, there we go,” he said around his fingers, and he extricated himself from the guts of the computer. “Want to give it a try?”

And have to lie to McKay about what he saw? “No thanks. Have at it.”

McKay got to his feet and stepped in front of the mirror. He placed both hands on the frame and said, “Show me my heart's desire.”

In the mirror, nothing happened. It showed McKay's expectant face, like Sheppard suspected. If other people could see what the mirror showed, he was pretty sure McKay would no longer be speaking with him. 

But then McKay's face did chance. He went very pale, his mouth slack. He was very still for a long moment.

“McKay?” Sheppard inquired, touching his shoulder.

McKay opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. He gestured wildly to the mirror. “Can you--?” he croaked.

Sheppard shook his head. “All I see is you,” he said, and Jesus, what a statement that was. “Are you okay, buddy?”

McKay shook his head slowly, his mouth goldfishing again.

“What the hell did you see, McKay?” Sheppard demanded. Part of him didn't want to know what would cause McKay to react like that, and part of him (a large part) was afraid he already knew.

“I just – need – a minute,” McKay managed after another moment.

“Okay, just sit down and catch your breath,” Sheppard advised, steering McKay toward a chair.

McKay flapped his hands at Sheppard. “Can you just – I need – I'm kind of having a heterosexual freak out here, so if you could just back off for a minute, that would be great.”

Sheppard froze. “Having a – what now?” That couldn't mean what he thought it meant. And even if it did... No, he couldn't think about that now.

McKay sat down heavily, his head in his hands. Sheppard noticed he was babbling. “But you're not even _blonde_ ,” he was saying. “Blonde, hell, you're not even _female_. God, I've been ignoring 49 percent of the population this whole time. I could have been getting laid this _whole time_.”

He looked up suddenly. “What did you see?” He demanded of Sheppard.

Sheppard lied reflexively. “Nothing, it didn't work, remember?” 

“Bull,” said McKay, getting up. He pointed a finger at Sheppard. “You saw something. I saw your face.”

“Rodney,” Sheppard said warningly, taking a step back. But McKay continued toward him until he was backed up against a wall.

“I know you saw something, Sheppard. And you weren't surprised. You knew the mirror worked, and you lied. You didn't want me to know.”

“Rodney,” Sheppard said again, a note of pleading in his voice this time.

McKay was right up in his face now, finger wagging accusingly. “Tell me.” Sheppard didn't respond. If this was going to be the end of their friendship, it sure as hell wasn't going to be Sheppard that did it.

McKay was nonplussed, eyes wide and a little wild. He let out a noise like a suppressed scream through clenched teeth, then grabbed Sheppard by the back of the neck and pressed their lips together.

Sheppard wasn't kissing back, but the fact that he wasn't beating McKay to a bloody pulp or storming out wordlessly was encouraging. McKay pulled back and let go of him.

“So...” McKay said awkwardly, scrubbed a hand over the back of his head, a move that reminded him of Sheppard even as he did it. He cleared his throat. “I guess I'll just...” He made an abortive movement toward the door, but Sheppard snapped out a hand to grab his arm. 

He pulled McKay back and kissed him. This kiss was much better, McKay thought, with both participants actually, well, participating. Then Sheppard did something sneaky with his tongue and McKay promptly stopped thinking.

They separated again several moments later, breathless. “Maybe not in a lab,” said Sheppard, moving toward the door.

“Yeah,” agreed McKay, snatching his tablet and following. “So are you gonna tell me what you saw?”

“You already know, McKay,” Sheppard said with a whack to the back of McKay's head.

“Yeah,” McKay agreed again, a broad grin spreading across his face. “Yeah, I do.”

 

Fin


End file.
